Hand-held devices, such as mobile phones, use capacitive sensors to detect physical phenomena such as the proximity, touch or touch gesture of the user, where the sensors can detect when the user is either holding or close to the device. Capacitive sensors are effective with insulant device body or device housing materials such as plastic. However, many hand-held devices use conductive material such as metals for the body or housing material, which can block the capacitance and specific arrangements that may be needed to enable the use of capacitive sensors.